A Happy Flowering of Discontent

I wrote a few months ago about the general lack of good Indian politically charged, satirical, webcomics. There was of course Crocodile in Water, Tiger on Land that one could look forward to every Monday. But the heart wants excess of it.

magine my surprise when I found an article about a happy flowering of discontent on Jabong of all places. I'm not complaining, I just didn't expect it to come from such a platform.I It obviously mentioned CWTL, and Appupen's newly created Rashtraman. I had seen the work on newslaundry (Full disclosure: I'm a proud patron and subscriber of News Laundry),

Image Source: Appupen

Then there was Sanitary Panels that has been featured on The Ladies Finger. So you can say I was generally aware of it but not really following it.

Image Source: sanitarypanels

Another one there was The Royal Existentials. Again I had seen an image or two floating around on the social media but it didn't occur to me to follow the trail and find the source. 

Image Source: The Royal Existentials

The one that was absolutely new to me was Inedible India. This is similar to Royal Existentials in the sense that they use older paintings, but they don't restrict themselves to miniature paintings.   

Image Source: Inedible India

Both Inedible India and Royal Existentials remind me of Wondermark by David Malki who uses illustrations from old books and newspapers to make his bizarre and wonderful comics. Some of these are just Facebook pages, others are blogs and websites. It's great to see the wide variety of expressions that are flowering. 

Afternoon Birdsong

Soaring on the score
Of Poplar leaves swishing
In a summer afternoon's warm breath
The incessant crow holds forth
Hopping from branch to branch.
Birds I never learnt to name
Call back, counsel, correct, comfort -
In a variety of tongues
We generically call Birdsong.